Ma Shouzhen (馬守真) was the foremost product of the #MeToo movement of the late Ming Dynasty. A courtesan, party animal and a hopeless romantic, she was known as a prolific painter, a benevolent citizen and one of the eight beauties of Qinhuai.
马守真是明朝晚期#MeToo运动的首要产物。 她是一个妓女、聚会动物和一个无可救药的浪漫主义者，她被称为多产的画家、仁慈的公民和秦淮的八大美女之一。
Born in Nanjing (then Yingtian) in 1548, Ma formerly assumed the position of courtesan aged 15, then took the name, Ma Xianglan (马湘兰); the forename meaning “Xiang Jiang Orchid”, after the river in Hunan Province and her preference for painting orchids.
马氏于1548年出生于南京（当时的英田），15岁时曾担任过妓女，然后取名马湘兰；名字的意思是“湘江兰花”，以湖南省的河流和她喜欢画兰花为名。
As her new life began in the entertainment district along the banks of the Qinhuai River, among her circle, there were the elite courtesans; ladies who learned painting, poetry and music as challenges to the era’s gender stereotypes.
当她的新生活在秦淮河畔的娱乐区开始时，在她的圈子里，有精英妓女；她们学习绘画、诗歌和音乐的女士，作为对那个时代的性别陈规定型观念的挑战。
As Monica Merlin notes in “The Nanjing Courtesan Ma Shouzhen (1548–1604): Gender, Space and Painting in the Late Ming Pleasure Quarter” (2011), Ming dynasty women of gentry were considered virtuous only by being wives and mothers, while the cultivation of any talent was discouraged. The courtesans, on the other hand, were also visible on the social scene and even invested in property.
正如莫妮卡·梅林在《南京妓女马寿珍（1548-1604）：明末欢乐区的性别、空间和绘画》（2011）中指出的那样，明代贵族女性只因为妻子和母亲而被视为贤惠，而培养任何人才都被劝阻。 另一方面，妓女在社交场合也很明显，甚至投资了财产。
Ma had numerous admirers. And she used their many gifts to finance the purchase of a house by the river, which she named the Youlan Pavillion (幽兰馆).
马有很多崇拜者。 她用他们的许多礼物资助了在河边购买一栋房子，她将其命名为幽兰馆。
A righteous and open-minded lady, Ma was also generous with her money, helping penniless scholars to take their exams and businessmen in trouble, as well as the old, weak and poor nearby.
马是一位正义和思想开放的女士，她的钱也很慷慨，帮助身无分文的学者参加考试和陷入困境的商人，以及附近的老人、弱者和穷人。
Together with her singing, poetry and painting, Ma was also a good talker.
加上她的歌唱、诗歌和绘画，马也是一个很健谈的人。
Her voice was said to more of a warble and her expression charming. And with her worldly-wise, life experience, Ma gradually became one of the Qinhuai River’s most popular faces.
据说她的声音更像是嚯嚪，她的表情很迷人。 以她世俗的生活经验，马逐渐成为秦淮江最受欢迎的面孔之一。
Aged 24, Ma formed a close friendship with Wang Zhideng, a talented but poor poet, who, having fallen on hard times, more or less stumbled into Ma’s Youlan Pavillion.
24岁的马与王志登建立了亲密的友谊，王志登是一位才华横溢但贫穷的诗人，王志登在困难时期，或多或少地偶然发现了马的《游兰亭》。
It was a love which was to last for 33 years. One of Ma’s most famous works is of a solitary orchid on a cliff, painted to show Wang she was not a willowing flower on the road or a fickle woman without true feelings.
这是一段持续33年的爱情。 马氏最著名的作品之一是悬崖上的一朵孤独的兰花，画上是为了向王表明她不是路上的柳树花，也不是一个没有真情的善变女人。
Towards the end of their time, for Wang’s 70th birthday, Ma raised money to buy a boat and take party goers to Suzhou to celebrate with drink. Of the time enjoyed by all, there was said to be, “Banquets for months; singing and dancing for days”.
在时间接近尾声的时候，为了王的70岁生日，马筹集了资金买了一条船，并带参加派对的人去苏州喝酒庆祝。 据说，在所有人都享受的时光中，有“几个月的宴会；几天的唱歌和跳舞”。
Such fast living was to have other repercussions too, for Ma’s paintings. According to Tseng Yuho in “Women Painters of the Ming Dynasty” (1993), many of her art works may have actually just been given away at some of these endless parties.
对于马的画作来说，如此快的生活也会产生其他影响。 根据曾宇浩在《明朝女画家》（1993年）中的说法，她的许多艺术作品实际上可能刚刚在这些无休止的派对上被赠送。
Ma’s many letters to Wang are now to be found in the collection, “Debutantes’ Letters in Successive Dynasties” (历代名媛书简).
马某给王的许多信件现在可以在《历代名媛书简》集中找到。
But the fun was to come to an end all too soon, when one afternoon, aged 57 and on a hunch, Ma bathed and dressed carefully, then sat in the living room of her house and ordered her servant to place orchids around her seat. She passed away just a few minutes later.
但乐趣很快就结束了，一天下午，57岁的马在预感下仔细地洗澡和穿好衣服，然后坐在她家的客厅里，命令她的仆人在她的座位周围放上兰花。 就在几分钟后，她去世了。
